Neil Simon (born
Marvin Neil Simon on
July 4,
1927 in
The Bronx,
New York City), is an
American playwright and
screenwriter. He is one of the most reliable hitmakers in Broadway history, as well as one of the most performed playwrights in the world. From the mid sixties to the mid Eighties, Simon's name became a synonym for popular and financial success, like Spielberg's later. Though primarily a comic writer, some of his plays, particularly the
Eugene Trilogy and
The Sunshine Boys, reflect on the 20th century Jewish-American experience.
Simon briefly attended New York University in 1946. Two years later, he quit his job as a mailroom clerk in the Warner Brothers offices in Manhattan to write radio and television scripts with his brother Danny Simon. Their revues for Camp Tamiment in Pennsylvania in the early 1950s caught the attention of Sid Caesar, who hired the duo for his popular TV comedy series Your Show of Shows. (Simon later incorporated their experiences into his play Laughter on the 23rd Floor.) His work won him two Emmy Award nominations and the appreciation of Phil Silvers, who hired him to write for his eponymous sitcom in 1959.
In 1961, Simon's first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn, opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, where it ran for 678 performances. Six weeks after its closing, his second production, the musical Little Me (starring former boss Caesar), opened to mixed reviews. Although it failed to attract a large audience, it earned Simon his first Tony Award nomination. Overall, he has garnered seventeen Tony nominations and won three. He has also won a Pulitzer Prize in drama for Lost In Yonkers.
In 1966 Simon had four shows running on Broadway at the same time Sweet Charity, Star Spangled Girl, The Odd Couple, and Barefoot in the Park. His prolific output includes light comedies (Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple), darker, more autobiographical works (Chapter Two, the Eugene Trilogy comprised of Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound) and books for musical comedies (Sweet Charity, Promises, Promises).
